Right now, my plan is to continue expanding the community and keeping the current backers interested, and continue working on Rhythos on the side until I have a runnable demo people can try (hopefully by early next year). Then, my plan is to start another campaign next year, and hope with the expanded community, the demo, and more interesting backer rewards, it’ll have a higher chance of success.

I hope he succeeds–the more tools like this that allow people to make their own games, the better.

The game uses cellular automation to simulate its world. Liquids flow, gases spread, boulders roll, fires spread, plants grow and walls crack and crumble. Other games, notably three that involve exploring underground caverns, use CA techniques: the classic Atari 800 puzzle game Boulder Dash (which directly inspired the behavior of the boulders here), and the recent indie hits Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft. Another game that bears some similarity, at least in the operation of its engine, is the “Falling Sand” Java game. However, In Profundis’ CA system will be rather more complex than most of these (except maybe for Dwarf Fortress — Tarn Adams is a genius). The fact that it’s 2D helps in this regard; it greatly decreases the amount of calculation needed for each frame.

The developer posted a YouTube video demonstrating his vision for the game: